DRIVER’S JOURNAL

Day 1: I picked up the vehicle, and we had just had a nice dump of snow, so I was able to judge how the car handled on country roads, highway and in the city. With snow tires, the car handled well in snow and slush. It handles well, is relatively quiet and the controls are easy to find ( not in weird places or hard to understand). It took some fiddling to pair the phone. The system sounds a warning if you leave the vehicle without removing the key. Day 2: Costco run to Okotoks. The vehicle rode quite well for such a short wheelbase. Since we were dealing with the slush from the snow earlier in the week, the front and back windows needed constant wiper fluid. There is a headrest for the middle seat in the rear that folds down, allowing for better visibility. The hatchback was a welcome feature, as there is ample space in the back for all our Costco purchases. Day 3: I found out by accident that if you have a door open, then push the key fob to lock the door, once you shut the door, it does not lock. All doors must be closed in order for the car to lock. Day 4: The day to test the electronics. ( I was in the passenger seat to do this, not driving distractedly.) This vehicle does not have a CD player, rather, there is a USB port for a flash drive, which didn't work very well. The system read the flash drive instantly and started playing the first song in the list. On the display, there are choices for Random, Repeat and Browse. I selected Random ( or Shuffle in the Apple world), expecting songs in a different order. It repeated the same song, even though the Repeat button was not selected. I pressed Browse to choose another song. It played that song. Over and over and over and over. Later, like the odd phone pairing, this feature suddenly started working. Day 5: A day for running errands in the slushiest conditions. Keeping the back window and the backup camera clean was a chore. The backup camera is in an exposed location, so it muddies up very quickly and renders it not very useful. This vehicle is not meant for tall people and although it has seatbelts for five people, it would be a tight squeeze. The back seat is comfortable enough. There is a fold- down armrest with cupholders. Day 6: Another errand day. We are still dealing with the dump of snow and the melting, so keeping the back window clean was impossible. I would say that would be my pet peeve with this vehicle, even more than the lack of legroom. A nice feature of this vehicle is that there are controls on the steering wheel for phone, song choice and shuffle, etc., and the same controls are in the display. This allows for either the driver or the passenger to access them without much distraction. We were out after dark and had to put the lights on. In the controls there is an Auto function that I assumed would shut the lights off when the car was shut off. Nope. One still has to physically shut the lights off. Day 7: We woke to a small skiff of snow, which turned into blizzard- like conditions by noon, which wouldn't have been so bad had the temperature been colder. Rather, it was warm and slushy. Keeping the back window clean enough to see out of was nearly impossible. I also tried the Sport mode but I didn't really notice much difference in the handling of the vehicle. Today was the day I had to return the car, so we went to top up the fuel. I say top up rather than fill, because we hardly used a full tank.